Saxby Chambliss

Saxby Chambliss, born in 1943, Republican member of the United States Senate from Georgia. He began serving in the Senate in 2003. Chambliss was born in Warrenton, North Carolina, and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. He earned a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Georgia in 1966 and a law degree from the University of Tennessee in 1968. From 1968 until 1994 he practiced agriculture law and business law in Moultrie, Georgia.

Chambliss first ran for the U.S. House of Representatives in 1992 from Georgia’s rural Eighth District, but he lost in the Republican primary. Federally mandated redistricting in 1992 reduced the number of black, historically Democratic, voters in the district, opening the way for Chambliss to win in 1994. Chambliss was the first Republican elected to the House from the Eighth District since the American Civil War (1861-1865).

After the September 11 attacks by terrorists on the United States in 2001, Chambliss became chairman of the House Intelligence Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security. In this position, he oversaw the subcommittee’s work on evaluating terrorist threats and exploring how to improve the sharing of intelligence between law enforcement agencies. In 2002 Chambliss ran for the U.S. Senate and defeated incumbent Max Cleland.